Our Google for Education Case Study:

Google Expeditions* contains a growing number of journeys from around the world - but what seemed to be missing was a way to search the available content. So I produced a searchable map and table of the current expeditions: * The Google Expeditions App is currently is beta but you can sign up to test it here. How this map was produced… 1. I started with a list of Google Expeditions shared with me during the Expedition Pioneer Program - helpfully this included the location for most of the expeditions. 2. Then I ran the GeoCode Add On - on the location column. This turned the locations into Latitude and Longitude. 3. Then I used Awesome Table to display the data and embedded that back into this page. You can also view the map direct in Awesome Tables here. 4. This worked for most expeditions, however I had to tidy up a few locations in the dataset (as a Geographer I could not let some of the errors go). If you spot any errors on the map let me know in the comments below and I will correct the data. 5. I added the Country Column to make it easier to search the data.      

"Machines that learn (limited AGI) will obsolete ‘jobs’ FASTER than entrepreneurs can make them and people can retrain to fill them." - John Robb We need to rewire how we work. The machines are getting much better at the old world of work than we can ever be. Automation is the driver. Offshoring and outsourcing... Read more »

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You’ve spent weeks developing an amazing course and now it is time to create the assessments. Nothing kills an award-winning course like a poorly developed assessment. There is more to creating a good assessment than pulling the main points from the course content and turning them into multiple choice questions. Unfortunately, many of us do not leave ourselves the time to thoroughly craft assessments, don’t involve the SMEs like we did with the content creation, and just plain don’t know how to create strong assessments. A good assessment should not only check the learners’ knowledge of the content, it should also test the learners’ ability to apply the content into real life. This means scenario-based questions. This means involving the SMEs to create realistic scenarios. This means leaving enough time! Another thing that a good assessment does is to identify when learners are weak in a topic area. If learners incorrectly answer several questions within a related topic, then provide feedback on the area within the course where they can review the topic content or to a location outside of the course where they can receive additional help on the topic. Periodically run a report to see what questions and topics people are struggling with. If learners consistently miss a question, it is a good indication that either the question is flawed or the content within the course needs work. Julie Delazyn at Questionmark created a great inforgraphic on 10 Actionable Steps for Building a Valid Assessment.

In this article, we share 6 ways to create meaningful eLearning assessments. How To Create Meaningful eLearning Assessments Your eLearning assessments are the oracle of your eLearning course. The results can tell you if your training efforts have been successful, whether your audience learned and retained the information you set out to impart, and where […] The post 6 Ways To Create Meaningful eLearning Assessments appeared first on PulseLearning.

In this series of articles, the Educational Technology team will be providing an insight into existing practice using technology for learning and teaching at Falmouth University and various projects being undertaken within the sector.The flipped classroom is not a new method for learning, and actually refers to techniques that have been used for a while now. You may or may not realise that you’re using these techniques in your teaching. If you’re not, then the best reason for adopting a flipped approach to teaching and learning is that it offers pedagogical advantages. Within this post I am going to focus on a few different ways that learning can be flipped. Knowledge transfer → knowledge assimilation, and just in time teaching CC-BY-NC 2.0 licensed image by Derek BruffFrom the image you can see that Mazur proposes is that knowledge transfer should be covered prior to attending class, and that the class time be used to help students assimilate what they have read or watched prior to coming to class. The ‘flip’ is simply that knowledge transfer happens outside class, and knowledge assimilation happens in class.Mazur puts emphasis on the assimilation of knowledge within the classroom through peer interactions. Content and readings that the students need to receive are disseminated prior to a class based session and students are expected to engage in that transfer of knowledge. Within the class he then poses questions and problems and polls students on their answers (so they commit to an opinion). Once that is done the students discuss between them and the ones that understand articulate it to the others. The questions and problems that are asked during the class time are usually based on results of quizzes that students are asked to complete before the lecture. This type of learning is referred to as ‘just in time’ teaching as the schedule and questions for the class session are often not determined until very close to its delivery.Blending ‘just in time’ teaching and peer instruction are not the only approaches, and whilst there is no one correct way of doing things it’s probably safe to say that an approach which sees the students actively engaged in class, rather than passive, is likely to lead to them learning more. A visual idea of how the flipped classroom could work based on the above, is given below: Farmer, 2015This brings me onto Experiential Learning. This certainly isn’t a new idea, and was first talked about in the early 1900’s by John Dewey:"The Teacher and the book are no longer the only instructors; the hands, the eyes, the ears, in fact the whole body, become sources of information, while teacher and textbook become respectively the starter and the tester.  No book or map is a substitute for personal experience; they cannot take the place of the actual journey"  (Dewey, 1915, p74).Fast forward 100 years, and the same things are being discussed, just in a slightly different contexts. Technology is now part of the delivery of a flipped environment, using tools to engage the learner with materials and activities outside of the classroom, allow synchronous and asynchronous discourse, and acquire knowledge.There is a lot of overlap in the phrases used for things like experiential, active and flipped learning. There are differences, but the general consensus is that getting students to access content and engage in activities designed to develop their understanding before class, and then using the class time to discuss and engage in depth brings issues, ideas and questions to the surface. The pre-class content and activities develops their knowledge and understanding more effectively when discussed and reflected on in class (Farmer, 2015).Flipped learning offers the best of both online and face to face learning. In a similar vain to the message in the Lens on… Blended Learning post a while back, flipped learning should offer a seamless transition between the students’ own learning environment and the classroom. Each should compliment the other, with purpose and meaning being paramount. Students should be able to have the opportunity to experiment with ideas to learn through doing, in a supported environment where they learn from everything they do, apply their knowledge into problem solving, and assimilate their knowledge to develop it into concrete experience (Kolb, 1984).Whilst researching for this blog post, what I didn’t find is much research about flipped learning in arts and creative subjects. There is a lot of information about the marked improvement of results and performance in science, technology, engineering and maths areas. It would be interesting to work up reasoning behind the lack of literature around flipped learning for creative subjects: is it because the nature of these disciplines is already experiential, and active? Engagement within a class environment is participative, and less didactic?Educational Technology are very interested in learning more about how you engage your students inside and outside the classroom. Do you encourage a dynamic environment within your teaching spaces? How do you think it improves what you do and how your students learn?Comment below or get in touch to tell us more :)References:Dewey, J., Dewey, E. (1915) Schools of To-morrow. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company.Farmer, R., (2015) ‘What is the Flipped Classroom?’. LearnTech blog, [blog] 16 Jan 2015, Available at: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2015/01/16/what-is-the-flipped-classroom/ Accessed [24 March 2016].Kolb, D. A., (1984) Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Every fortnight I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds. "Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in." ― Leonardo da Vinci, via @gfbertini "Millennials: the landless peasants the founders warned each other would happen." - @girlziplocked "Blessed... Read more »

Find out whether you are an optimist, pessimist, realist, engineer or conspiracy theorist (debate.org) Because you really want to know.------------------------------ Going through the Risk Management planning process is fantastic for figuring out pessimistic, optimistic and most likely scenarios.We did a little bit of work with this earlier as we estimated how much things will cost.We can use the same technique to figure out how much time things take.Even if you are using nothing but internal resources - think time = cost.--------------------------------So for this, I'm assuming you've already broken down the activities of your project.Now that you've got your activity list and have a good idea of what needs to happen when - it's time to take those activities and figure out how long each activity is going to take.Most of us do this on the fly.  We can be a bit more mindful about it.  Especially since we often don't account for the things that can go wrong (like the production laptop dying - which should be on your Risk Register).Again, I like Three-Point Estimating for this.Three-Point EstimatingWe used this for cost before. We can also use this for time.Step 1: Create 3 estimates- Most likely (tM) - The time the activity will take based on realistic effort assessment for the required work.  Before learning this technique, I tended to use most likely(based on my personal development speed) + 3 days for time estimates for development activities.  - Optimistic (tO) - The time the activity will take based on best-case scenario.  Opportunities should be in your risk register. Things such as getting the star developer on the project or a template appears that you didn't know about or finding a design model from elsewhere that cuts your research time.  Accounting for optimistic scenarios gives you ammunition for when the project champions and executives invariably move your project deadline forward.- Pessimistic (tP) - The time the activity will take based on everything going horrifically wrong. The developer quits and you need to onboard a new person to the project who has never used Captivate before. The developer's laptop dies. Your project champion leaves the organization and no one is willing to make decisions.  All of it should be in the Risk Register.  And you need to try to have a realistic view of how likely that scenario will happen. For disasterizers like myself, that can be hard. Hence the Risk Register probability / impact matrix exercise.Step 2: Plug resulting numbers into formulasThere are two ways to calculate expected time for each activity.Depending on your organization, they may want to see one or both calculations.tE = Expected time- Triangular Distribution.  The average of the most likely, optimistic and pessimistic time scenarios.tE = (tM + tO + tP) / 3- Beta Distribution. This uses the PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) technique to get a weighted estimate between optimistic, pessimistic and most likely scenarios.  The assumption is that the most likely scenario is 4x more likely to happen than either the optimistic or pessimistic scenarios.tE = (4tM + tO +tP) / 6--------------------- This information will allow you to build the first draft of the project schedule.An optimistic scenario - where everything goes right and then some.A likely scenario - the "realistic" time frameA pessimistic scenario - where the project gets finished, but everything goes wrong My first draft of a project schedule for the types of projects I do (instructional design and development projects, simple learning applications / solutions implementations) assumes that everything follows each other and nothing happens in parallel.We know life doesn't work like that.

The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. -Adlai StevensonWith the political primaries in full swing, voters’ blood is boiling listening to would-be future leaders of our country. Candidates from both parties have left voters confused, frustrated, disgusted, frightened and angry. An "us vs. them" mentality has created a wider divide than ever before. Who can voters trust? Who can really fix what’s broken? What will our country become?While it may sound a bit cheeky, and certain political purists may roll their eyes at the sentiment — we need Pope Francis. If he were running for president, he’d get my vote, and I’m not Catholic. I love this Pope. In a mere three years, despite serious obstacles, he has accomplished major bureaucratic housecleaning, set new directions and priorities for a global organization not traditionally known for its innovation, and focused the attention and resources of the Church on matters of global concern. Other Popes have worked towards change and failed; some didn’t even bother; some made things worse. It’s been a long road and Pope Francis is number 266 in a long line of leaders.Consider what the Pope is up against within the Vatican and compare this to what the President of the United States is up against with Congress. Resistance to change? Check. Hidden agendas? Check. A culture of infighting and power struggles? Check. A network of powerful administrative departments that seem to despise each other? Check. Wars between conservative and liberal wings? Check. Throw in scandal, hubris, greed, cover ups and conference rooms full of decision makers with narcissistic personality disorder and you’ve pretty much got it.So how has Pope Francis done it? Why is he so popular?Let’s start with how he became the Pope. Jorge Mario Bergoglio didn’t use negative television commercials, name calling and profanity or an over active ego to be considered for this position of leadership. There was no us-versus-them, no I’m right, they’re wrong. Through a miraculous process unimaginable in the U.S., Pope Francis was chosen by people with strongly opposing views. I suspect he may have been chosen, in part, because of his gentle, unassuming nature. Some may have thought he could be controlled. Turns out, while he is gentle and kind he is also strong — these are all qualities that our nation should be looking for in a presidential candidate.Once chosen, it became clear that Pope Francis is a communicator. He has a Facebook page, he tweets, and when he speaks, it is without the usual Vatican filters. His goal isn’t to get "likes." He seeks unity, resolution, focused action on matters like climate change, religious persecution, and the suffering of so much of humanity. Pope Francis seeks engagement with the world, including those who do not share his beliefs.He understands that what gets talked about, how it gets talked about and who is invited to the table determines what will happen. Or won’t happen. He is engaging the world, including his adversaries, one conversation at a time. These are conversations that build our world of meaning, building bridges, not walls, conversations that provide clarity versus confusion, conversations that invite cross-boundary collaboration and cooperation versus adding concertina wire to the walls between well-defended fiefdoms. Indeed, these are conversations that reveal we are capable of original thought. Intelligent, spirited conversations which provide clarity and impetus for change.Read the rest of the article in my Huffington Post column.The post What Presidential Candidates Could Learn From Pope Francis appeared first on Fierce, Inc..